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Posts Tagged ‘Dental Marketing’

With all the buzz about social media, social networking, and other social sites, it can get very frustrating not to mention distracting. 

Social media is a great marketing tool, but be careful. It is about being social yes…but you must keep your focus.

 Facebook has many distractions. Applications, games, surveys, sending cards and flowers, joining different groups…etc. Twitter can be distracting as well with all the tweets coming through, applications, responses, direct messages… etc

 I’ve witnessed this first hand. There can be so many things to try to do, applications to try, posting on Facebook and Twitter, creating a profile for LinkedIn and just the day to day “to dos” in addition to so much to learn. 

This is one of the main questions asked, “How much time will I have to put into social media”? The answer depends on what you want to accomplish and yes, you will have to spend some time with update, responses, and blog postings.

How focused you are can determine if it’s a lot of time or just the right amount of time needed.  

Here are a few tips:

 1. Determine your focus: Always stick to your core messages and values. Make sure your posts reflect those messages and values. The general rule is 80%-90% business and 10%-20% personal. 

2. Make a list: Write down what you want to accomplish today, this week, this month. Break it down into “do-able” sizes and cross them off as you complete them. There’s something about seeing a list with accomplishments marked off that keeps the energy flowing.

 3. Set your timer: Allow specific items a specific amount of time to get accomplished. When the timer goes off, wrap it up and move to the next item. If you’ve time it right, hopefully the item is complete, but if it’s not, it’s well on it way to completion when addressed the next time.

4. Allow times for breaks: This can be one of the most look over items. Stop what you are doing, walk away from your desk and on to your porch or deck. Take a few deep breaths of fresh air. If you can’t go out at the moment, if there is a window near your desk, just turn away from your desk and enjoy the view outside your window.

 All through the summer I’ve enjoyed watching several humming birds flying around the hanging basket near my computer room window.

Following through on the suggestions mention above will help with your time.  As your blog and your social sites grow, more responsibilities may come into play.  You can always outsource to a third party as few or as many of those responsibilities as needed for you to be able to concentrate on getting your content out.  

These are just a few things to help you keep your focus. What can you add to the list?

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Dental Marketing, engaging social media, focus your time, how not to be distracted with social media, Internet Marketing, Keeping your focus using social media, Livvie Matthews, social media marketing

Many people on Facebook use their PROFILE page in some way associated as their business page.  When “Friending” some people recently,  I’d noticed once on their page, there was no “What’s on you mind?” status bar to type in a message to them. 

This had actually happened to me awhile back, and thankfully one of my online friends emailed me to let me know she couldn’t post a message on my Profile Wall.

As the owner of the page, you can view the “What’s on you mind” status bar, but your viewers cannot.  To make sure this isn’t a problem for your Profile page, here’s how to check or change it to make sure it’s viewable on your Profile wall and others can post to your Wall:

On your Profile under your picture:

• Click “Edit Profile”
• Look in the left column for Basic Information
• On the left column, in the little paragraph Click Privacy Settings link
• On the next page in the middle of the large column near the bottom Click Customized Settings
• Scroll down to the 2nd paragraph area  titled Things others can share
• 3rd item down in the list it reads Friends can post on my Wall
• Scroll to the right of that and put in a check so it reads Enable
• Then go back to your Profile

If Enable was already checked your Wall status bar was already viewable, however if you had to check Enable it was not enabled.  To make sure your viewers can see  your “What’s on your mind?” status bar, have a follower of yours  come to your profile page and type you a message. 

If you would like to view how to do the steps above, here’s a quick video with step x step how to’s:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXO3BJspA60

What Facebook tip have you used that helped you? 

Technorati Tags: Dental Marketing, enable Facebook profile status bar, engaging social media, Facebook, Facebook for business, Facebook Profile Status Bar, Facebook settings, Livvie Matthews, social media marketing, writing Facebook messages

Social media allows for something that’s never been available to businesses using traditional marketing in the past.  Social media allows you to connect…to talk…to create…an ongoing dialogue with your target audience!

Unlike print ads and direct mail outs that are static and limited in their information or even networking events that are one time meetings…social media allows you to “talk” with your audience…24/7. 

This creates incredible opportunities to be visible and responsive to your market!  But if you’re not careful, social media can be very overwhelming and distracting.  There are the social platforms, the tools (applications, widgets, plugins, etc),  social media etiquette, connecting and engaging with viewers, and the time involved…time can be a big factor!

One of the biggest mistakes practices make when starting in social media is they just jump in with no clear objectives or strategy.  They aren’t sure about what they want to do and how they’re going to do it.

They’ll set up their social sites, Twitter – Facebook – LinkedIn, and maybe even a blog, but they don’t know how to connect, how to listen, and more importantly…how to engage effectively. Then after a few posts, their sites just sit there and begin gathering virtual dust. I’ve been to many dental sites on twitter and noticed the date of their last tweet was months ago. 

In using social media, to be effective in attracting and engaging quality followers, you must have these elements in place:

Know your target market and which social networks they are using the most

• Let’s put this into perspective:  If you work out of 3 Treatment Rooms and your patient is seated in TR 3 and you’re seated in TR 2 waiting for that patient, you aren’t going to get anything accomplished, you’re not where your patient is.

So if you’re on Twitter and your target is on Facebook…see the importance?  Go where the “eyeballs” are…know and be seen where your target market is.

Know and be clear about your objectives – goals – or outcome you want from social media

• What are you wanting social media to accomplish? Do you want to gain your targeted audience’s attention?  Drive traffic to your practice, blog, or website? Enhance your practice’s patient services?  Maybe you want to grow your practices email list

What are your objectives – what is it you want to accomplish with social media?

Create an engagement plan for using social media

• Once you’ve determined and joined the social network sites your target uses, you’ll need to determine how you are going to connect, engage, and communicate with your viewers.  How often will you “tweet”, post, or update. What are your core messages you will deliver?

Social media is all about connecting, engaging, and effectively communicating which in turn empowers your viewers.

Create a social media policy for your practice

• How will you and or your employees handle social media in your practice? What’s the right way and wrong way for your employees to use social media?  Who is going to be responsible for managing and overseeing your overall social media marketing? 

Whether handling in-house or outsourcing to a third party, you need a social media policy in place. 

One last point to bring is Safety Online:  Remember:  Once you’ve said it on the Internet, there’s no taking it back.  A few good rules to follow:

• Never post anything you don’t want your Grandmother or children to read
• Never give out sensitive information like account numbers or social security numbers
• Never spam – you’ll be un-followed and dropped like a hot dental instrument

By creating and having your social media strategy in place first:

• You’ll know your social media objectives
• How you’re going to achieve your objectives
• An overall plan for implementing your social media strategy

 These are the top elements needed in creating a winning social media strategy.  What additional elements have you used in your strategy?

This article first appeared in Dental Heroes.

Technorati Tags: create social media stragety, Create social media strategy, Dental Marketing, engaging and connecting, How to create a winning social media strategy, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social media marketing

Social meda is a powerful marketing tool, but if you’re not careful it can be time consuming and can become overwhelming.

Invitations to connect, invitations to events, join this group, attend this meeting, use this application and the list goes on and on.  It’s no wonder after awhile many social marketing sites just sit there gathering virtual dust.  The key?  You must learn to stay focused.

When first entering the social arena, you might only want to join one of the social platforms, maybe Twitter or Facebook.  Then as you get comfortable with that platform, move on to the next.

But if you’re going to be or are already using several of the social platforms, there are some short cuts you can use to help on days when you’re pressed for time.

The biggest time saver for social marketing is to automate using the  following: 

• Schedule Tweets to post in the future using HootSuite.com or SocialOomph.com
• Write and pre-load your Blog content
• Set up searches and alerts
• Link up feed content to RSS Feeds
• Create email autoresponders
• Use plugins like Tweetmeme.com for viewers to be able to “Tweet This”

The “Lists” you can create in Twitter help you follow certain people easier and your lists can be added to HootSuite making it much easier to locate certain people you like to RT or respond to.

These are just a few time saving shortcuts but whenever possible, take a few hours a week to maintain your social platforms for making contacts and building those all important relationships.   This is social media so the more posts and tweets are seen,  the better.  Remember, it’s all about connecting, engaging, and communicating.

What time saving shortcuts can you share?

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Building Business, Dental Marketing, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social marketing shortcuts, social media marketing, social media short cuts, time saving shortcuts for social marketing, time saving shortcuts for social media

Today, 85% of consumers are looking online for who they are going to do business with.  They aren’t flipping pages in a telephone book, looking in a magazine, or scanning direct mailers, there’re  on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Google viewing what others are saying . 

 But what does that have to do with transparency and authenticity?  In these economic times, people are looking behind the brand to the person and watching closely what’s being said and what’s being done, therefore, whatever is done must be done with quality! 

Through social marketing platforms, consumers have the opportunity to see, really see, who they are doing business with.  They do this by viewing what others are saying about your business, about how you are viewed by your customers, and even by having an actual conversation with you or your representative on one of the social platforms.  

Are you a business that stands behind your products?  Do you support your customers?  Do you go the extra mile?  Do you make solving your customers problem a number one priority?   

Transparency and authenticity allows viewers to see through to the core of how you do business. All of this and more is available to consumers through the social platforms.  

You want to be specific, be informative, be approachable, and very importantly…always be genuine.  You must be transparent and authentic to be real. 

The old saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” does not apply in social marketing.  In social marketing it’s all about “who KNOWS (really knows) you!”  

What do you think, what does transparency and authenticity in social marketing mean to you?

Technorati Tags: Dental Marketing, engaging social media, Internet Marketing, Livvie Matthews, social marketing, social marketing platforms, transparency and authenticity in social marketing